Defender Tim Granaderos, the lone senior on the MSU men’s soccer team, reacts to the Spartans’ 2-1 loss to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Championship on Sunday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field.
The MSU men’s soccer team scrapped, clawed and left everything on the field.
But a two-goal deficit entering the second half proved to be too deep of a hole for the Spartans to climb out of, losing to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, 2-1, on Sunday at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field.
The loss ended the season for the Spartans, who were the No. 14 overall seed and earned a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m so proud of this team,” MSU head coach Damon Rensing said. “It’s always frustrating when you lose, but when you look back, we lost six starters from last year and we played one game this year with a full (healthy) lineup. I don’t make excuses, but I think this team handled it and played up to their level every single game.”
Both of Duke’s goals came in the first half off corner kicks. Defender Christian Ibeagha tallied his first goal of the season in the 28th minute and defender Andrew Wenger scored in the 41st minute to put MSU behind two goals at halftime.
The Spartans didn’t record a shot until the 55th minute of the game, and Rensing said the team came out of the gates looking to play more defensively, instead of pressing forward.
“Anytime you lose, you are going to second guess yourself,” Rensing said. “Today we weren’t ready to play in the first half or maybe just not as sharp as we’d like to be. I take responsibility for that.”
Rensing and lone senior and defender Tim Granaderos, gave spirited speeches at halftime to try and motivate the team to score the all-important next goal of the game and swing the momentum in favor of the Spartans.
MSU came out of the gates in the second half with a new sense of urgency and played more directly, looking to put pressure on the Duke defenders by playing long balls.
In the 76th minute, junior midfielder Jeff Ricondo — who suffered a broken nose earlier in the half and had his nose plugged with two cotton balls — weaved through two Duke midfielders and fired a shot that went off the hand of a Duke defender, giving the Spartans a free kick in the middle of the field from 19 yards out.
Duke assembled an eight-man wall, but junior midfielder Spencer Thompson was able to get his body in the middle of the wall and create a hole.
The gap was just big enough for sophomore forward Rubin Bega to squeeze the ball through and into the bottom left corner of the net, making the score 2-1.
“Right before I took it, I took a last glance up and I saw the wall split,” Bega said. “The goalie was blocked by their own guys and I saw the gap and just hit it. I hit it hard and the goalie had no chance.”
With the goal, the Spartans seized the momentum and desperately tried to keep the season alive.
MSU fired 10 shots in the second half and had the Blue Devils on its heels.
But the Spartans were unable to find the equalizer.
“They fought their hearts out at the end and made life difficult for us,” Duke head coach John Kerr said. “MSU was playing desperate soccer and making good runs and good crosses in the box. They were unlucky. Damon had them going really strong in the second half and they didn’t give up. He’s got to be proud of his boys for that.”
The Spartans (11-7-2) finished the season in sixth place in the Big Ten and made it to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament en route to earning a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.
“Not a lot of people had high hopes for us,” Ricondo said of the team’s outlook at the beginning of the season. “But I know the guys and the coaching staff all knew what we could do. We were able to get another bye this year, and hopefully we will be able to do the same thing next year.”
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